Persecution Spreads the Gospel to Samaria, Judea, and Beyond

The stoning of Stephen did not pacify the anger of the leadership and the people in Jerusalem. On the contrary, the persecution intensified particularly at the hand of a young man named Saul. Those who stoned Stephen "laid their robes at the feet" of Saul who gave "hearty approval" for putting Stephen to death. But that was not enough for Saul. Saul began "ravaging" the church, "entering house after house and dragging off men and women" and putting them in prison (Acts 8:3), perhaps awaiting trial for execution. The word translated "ravaging" is also translated as "made havoc", and "destroy". Saul was inflicting severe and extensive damage to the church.

Saul's persecution forced the church, most likely the Hellenist Christians who did follow the Jewish custom even before conversion, to scatter "throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria" (Acts 8:1). Ironically, this had the opposite effect of what the persecutors had intended. The Lord Jesus, before His ascension, told the disciples, "...but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth." However, until that time, we do not see anything in the record (i.e., the Book of Acts) that the church had witnessed outside of Jerusalem even though they had received the power when the Holy Spirit had come upon them.

But God uses all things for good, even the wicked intentions of men. What we see in Acts Chapter 8 is that persecution had caused the gospel to spread to Judea, Samaria, and beyond. Philip, a godly man whose ministry started in merely serving table, evangelizes an city in Samaria. God also arranged for a divine appointment for Philip and an Ethiopian official who came to believe on the Lord Jesus, and consequently took the gospel to Ethiopia.

Over the past couple of year, we have seen an ever-increasing hostility to the message of the gospel in our country. We have seen our freedoms, freedom of speech and freedom of religion, deteriorate. But take heart, my brother! Take heart, my sister! Although we do not know how everything will turn out, we do know how the story ends. In the meantime, let us pray that we will remain faithful. Let us pray that we will have ever-increasing opportunities to share the gospel.